Clusty,
I wouldn't put them out for the night with 50F. If you do not have many, you could them out for the day and bring in for night until temperatures become warmer. Start out slowly if in full sun. Maybe late morning until noon or 1PM
and then in filtered light until acclimatized to hot sun.

Rick

I have about 50 of them :)

It is all subjective to what amount of effort and time that you have. Also,
I cannot speak for your conditions.
I have about 30 (5" pots) and approx. 96 (2 1/4" pots) that I will move outside during the day for a week or so. When I do put them out for good 24hrs./day,
I keep them up against the house where it receives full sun. I like them against the house so that if it should rain that they do not get wet. I like to control the water they get, but the heat radiates off of the wall as well.

It is hard to give a definitive answer as we all live in such different climates.
From all that I have been advised of, cold and wet together will be the demise of them.
I hope this helps somewhat.
Rick

I'd avoid mean temps lower than 60-65, with 70-80* being about ideal. you might consider investing in a propagation mat
, which will keep the soil roughly 10* warmer than ambient air temps.

Al

I appreciate all of the information that I receive from people such as yourself Chris.
If people are new to raising these Adeniums the only way that they can learn is to ask questions and apply this knowledge to hopefully achieve some success. We all will have good results and some negative, but one day hopefully we can look back and realize as you do, that it is easier than what we had made it out to be.
I know for myself, I am growing these in completely different climate than many and I have to find what works for me. There are not a lot of people in my area that I can draw on information for help.

I hope to continue to learn as much as I can.
Rick

Hey,

Thanks for info guys.
The daytime temps reach high 70's for now. In the dead of summer they will be in the 90's.

I will be keeping them inside for a few more days until it gets a little warmer.

Chris, I totally agree with you that some make it more difficult growing these than necessary. If I waited for the night temps to reach 50's or 60's I would never be able to set my plants outside in my area. Right now I have 3 month old and 2 week old seedlings that tolerate night time temperatures between 42 - 45 deg and they are doing just fine.

Next week I will be setting all my plants outdoors and if the temps get below 40 deg in the evening I will bring them in otherwise they stay out and do just fine.

Good luck with growing on your seedlings.

If i did what I considered obvious and simple, all my plants will be dead now.

I'm frequently surprised by growers who think that just because a plant will tolerate a particular condition, somehow that condition must have no negative effects on a plant; or that the way they treat their plants is an appropriate model for others.

The fact is, that most plants that thrive at higher temperatures cannot carry on photosynthesis effectively when mean temperatures are much lower than 65*. And at temperatures lower than about 60*, N becomes very difficult for the plant to assimilate. Essentially the low temperatures some suggest are a-ok, force the plant to operate on 'battery power' - which would be the plant dipping into its (stored) energy reserves to fuel its day to day activities and keep its systems orderly. That means that at low mean temperatures, the plant is back-sliding - losing potential.

(The collective) YOU may not be able to actually see the ill effects, but that is no reason to assume they are not in play. A plant that is kept warmer will still be able to carry on photosynthesis, so if all else is equal, they will develop faster, grow larger, and bloom sooner.

Where plants are concerned, lost potential isn't readily seen, but it is a chronic issue for those who don't fully understand how to systematically eliminate or at least ameliorate those conditions that have the potential to limit our plants. Keep in mind that lost potential is lost forever. It can never be regained, even if the plant was restored to perfect health and grown under perfect conditions for as long as it remains viable.

Clusty - you'd do well to keep your plants at mean temps higher than 60-65*, so I think you made the right decision.

Al

Fakechuchi, why do you say that? What kind of regimen do you have keeping your adeniums alive?

My morning coffee time is now twice longer than it used to be because of this forum lol It used to be just reading local news in three different countries, now its browsing the GW archives as well and looking at pictures--especially the pictures!

Anyway, Ladylotus, I had zero knowledge about keeping plants alive in containers in a place with four seasons. I blithely assumed you watered the pot whenever and that was that.

So when I decided I wanted a pot of something alive, I had to start from scratch and eHow nonsense is not enough for me because they never explain details I want to know. I always prefer more information, rather than less. That's how I found this forum in the first place--it's a rich and dynamic source of unbelievable amounts of information because people here are generally not snarky about sharing their experiences, with pictures even!

So now, I know it is possible to underwater adeniums, especially when they're seedlings; I learned to not put them abruptly out in the sun after they've been indoors during this whole winter business, I now know not to expose them to direct sunlight after spraying them with soap and I'm beginning to think they will probably grow better if they weren't potted in pure pumice like my haworthias which are thriving happily in the same medium. Then I wonder why that is? Where on earth is the Sahel region (where Adeniums are native) and how different is that from the Cape Province in South Africa? How much rain do they get? Do they have cats there? And so forth and so on.

Being ignorant and having no previous hands-on experience, these are the things I think about.

Pagan

Awww Pagan, I do not think you are ignorant. I agree the things you mention "underwater adeniums, especially when they're seedlings; I learned to not put them abruptly out in the sun after they've been indoors during this whole winter business, I now know not to expose them to direct sunlight after spraying them with soap" are indeed things that need to be taken into consideration when growing Adeniums. However, these things need to be considered for any plant you grow in a pot.

The history of plants is pretty fascinating and I do spend a lot of time reading anything plant related that I can. Your comment about your morning coffee taking up more and more time is cute. I spend a fair amount of time reading GW also. During the summer I do too many things outdoors to be online much but during the winter I'm on way more than I should be.

I just started fertilizing my 3 month old seedlings and boy they are really starting to take off now. I do have them in full sun as I want beautiful caudex more than I want first year flowering and so I will fertilize quite heavily this summer.

I like the challenges of growing plants. I grafted some of my seedlings with some cuttings my DIL brought from Peru. I cannot wait to see the results. I had a couple pieces not take so far but most of them are looking good.

I NEED to get an account with Imgur and upload my photos there so I can post them here.

Have a great day. It is supposed to be gorgeous here again and I am off to the great outdoors.